4k Laptop and Desktop Reviews – Covers the Best Gaming, Notebooks and Laptops with 4k Displays Available for Sale

Below you will find a list of the latest and highest rated available 4k laptops.

Latest Update: November 20, 2017

Highest Rated 4k Resolution Laptops

4k Laptop

Description

Ratings and Reviews

1. ASUS Zenbook Pro UX501VW Review – 15.6″ 4K Touch Laptop

Imagine what you can do with the power and mobility to not only create visual masterpieces but to do so wherever you want. The stunning ASUS ZenBook Pro UX501 redefines its class combining high standard craftsmanship and high-performance components. Featuring a 15.6-inch IPS touchscreen display with 4K resolution and a host of technologies that all add up to breathtaking clarity and definition. Inspired by Zen inside and out, do what you thought was only possible before on a home PC on the move.

Razer Blade’s Stealth 4K UHD laptop is quite possibly one of the best and most advanced 4K notebook’s we’ve yet had the pleasure of reviewing. This is largely thanks to the New Razer Blade’s Kaby Lake 7th Gen Intel Core i7-7500U processor and all its attendant 4K graphics rendering power, which includes support for both H.265 and VP9 4K video compression technologies and a powerful 16GB dual-channel memory. Razer is also selling an external GPU box for the New Stealth laptop, letting you hook up even massive PC GPU’s like the GTX 1070 to this little machine for a high performance portable UHD gaming experience.

Now that 4K TVs, Cameras, 4K desktop PCs and 4K movie projectors are here, it’s only natural that the same should happen to laptops and thus of course it already has.

4K laptops are basically the same as regular laptops except that instead of a screen with 480p SD, 720p HD or 1080p Full HD resolution, they offer you full 4K ultra HD resolution at 3840 x 2160 pixels.

For computing devices whose average screen size doesn’t exceed more than 15 to 16 inches at a maximum, that 4K resolution means a heck of a lot of pixels and thus these machines typically come with the kind of extremely high ppi densities (pixels per inch) that make being able to even see digital pixilation very difficult with the naked eye.

Aside from their crazy, deeply detailed resolution, 4K laptops also differ slightly from their regular counterparts in that they’re also more powerfully beefed up with heavy duty processing and GPU (video card) specs designed to handle all those extra graphics created by their 4K screens.

Currently, a surprisingly large selection of 4K laptop models from a number of different brands are available on the market and while they’re more expensive than ordinary versions, they’re surprisingly affordable and getting cheaper every few months.

Some of the brands which manufacture these machines include Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Dell and even Apple with its latest lines of MacBooks and their basically 4K Retina technology.

What do I need for a 4K Laptop to Work?

For the most part, any 4K laptop you buy is built to work just fine with its massive resolution right when it comes out of the box. Because we’re talking about a self-contained unit that’s been pre-built by a single company for retail sale, the internal GPU, processor, RAM and other crucial speed/processing oriented specs of any laptop model will be ready to go right away.

This is in considerable contrast to many 4K PCs, where it’s common to see custom rigs being put together by users who grab their own individual parts and hammer them together into a full-blown 4K rig only to find that some component of their machine or another doesn’t sit well with the demands of 4K resolution.

Thus, in this regard, 4K laptops are a compact, slightly limited (more on this shortly) but excellent solution for the lover of 4K PC gaming and visual design work who wants something that’s ready to work out of the box with no need for tweaking hardware and buying new parts.

On the other hand though, while laptops that run 4K screens are definitely powerful little machines, they don’t normally compare well to complete 4K PCs, which are usually much more powerfully designed and better at handling visually intensive ultra HD graphics like those found in games and video editing applications.

Some things to think about Before Buying a 4K Laptop

4K on a small screen

Now, before you rush out and grab your own 4K ultra HD laptop from any of the manufacturers we’ve already listed above, there are a couple things you really need to consider.

First, there is the question of whether or not this device is even worth the expense of getting it. In this case, you need to ask yourself what you need 4K visual display for and understand a fundamental thing: 4K resolution is almost indistinguishable from Full HD resolution on the kinds of small screens that laptops come with.

So unless you mostly want the 4K graphics for the sake of knowing you have them, even if hardly anyone can distinguish your screen from an HD screen, then go ahead, but you might find yourself a bit underwhelmed by what you see.

Graphic Design

On the other hand, if you’re doing graphic design and visual arts work that does really get helped by the enormous 250+ ppi densities of 4K on a 15 inch screen, then go ahead. In these cases, the 4K resolution might just be very useful and especially so if you can also hook up a large 30+ inch 4K monitor to your laptop for domestic work.

Gaming Woes

As for 4K gaming on your laptop, it’s almost unequivocally not worth the effort. For starters, you’ll get barely any visible difference in resolution while having to suddenly deal with all the problems of smoothly rendering all those extra (if not easily visible) pixels on your screen.

And furthermore, although the GPU, CPU and RAM enhancements in a pre-built 4K notebook are definitely designed to handle graphics in 4K, they’re not usually made to manage the kind of 4K movement that goes with fast-action gaming territory. For this, you’re better off putting together or buying a full-blown 4K PC and maybe even getting a cheaper 4K TV as your PC gaming screen if you’re seriously dedicated to the awesome and noticeable graphics improvements that UHD means.

Instead, what can and often does happen with many laptops is that they directly scale objects in their native pixels. The result, obviously is that, a 500 pixel menu item from some software, which would look fine on a normal HD screen, now suddenly shrinks down to nearly five times less than the size it should have on a normal screen.

Often, this results in ridiculously, unusually small graphics on some ultra HD laptops.

Internet Connectivity

Finally, we should also mention the internet connectivity issue around having a 4K laptop. If you’re going to use that machine to upload and download 4K videos or stream them from sites that offer 4K like Vimeo and YouTube, you’d better make sure that your web connection is also up to the task of handling the UHD content for your UHD laptop screen. This means at least 18 to 25 Mbps of internet connectivity.

Some Final Thoughts

The bottom line is that while 4K laptops create truly, almost impossibly crisp imagery for graphics in native 4K resolution, they aren’t something you really need unless you plan on regularly working with native 4K resolution in terms of graphics and image editing.

Or, if you’re interested in UHD gaming and don’t quite have the cash for a full 4K PC, then a laptop with its own pre-built hardware that includes Nvidia GPU cards, an AMD 4K-ready processor and HDMI 2.0 connectivity or at least DisplayPort 1.2 might just be a modest solution.

Not to be mean or all, but the guy who chose the picture for “Dell – Inspiron 15.6″ 4K Ultra HD Touch-Screen Laptop”
Really need to re-think how a laptop looks like.
(The picture is currenty of a : LG 31 Cinema-4k IPS Monitor)

4k laptop screens look better than words can describe. I found it to be life changing, because tech has so much been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. Anyone on the fence should go to a computer store and actually see 4k screens for themselves. Look at 4k videos and images. You will never be the same. But having said this, I am wondering if 4k laptops can handle all 4k videos. I have the Dell that is listed in the above article, and its framerate gets slightly choppy on about half of the popular 4k content I have come accross. I have been debating returning it, and then purchasing the best 4k laptop available, but I worry that even that laptop cannot handle all video as perfectly as laptops 2 to 4 years from now will. Perhaps I should get a 1080p laptop, and just not worry about 4k. But after seeing 4k, I am a new person. It’s tough to decide. Anyone reading this article should try watching all sorts of third-party 4k content (content other than what the manufacturer or tech store gives as promo) on a 4k laptop before purchasing, or at least within the return window. Perhaps the time is not right, or maybe the Dell I have is not enough machine. I am unsure, but take my words as both advice and caution! Check out 4k in person and your life will be different. But if you dream of a future of 4k movie watching like I do, make sure you test out what is currently on the market, because you may want to wait to buy, buy a PC, or only the top of the line laptop.

my experience with dell 2x is crummy laptops and service….i buy at costco and the 2 dells i bought last year went back after screen issues and poor performance but i ask myself……what is better? lenevo is chinese crap….asus…maybe maybe not good?….hp?? usually crap too…sorry to be negative but i had to call costco and make a stink to be able to take back 2 of the same dell laptops with exact same issues 18 months AFTER purchase..they said ok and now i am seeking a replacement.

I have been scouring websites before buying the most appropriate netbook which will be dedicated to amateur level astronomy work (deep space). (I do not want a PC + monitor) .
An OLED TV (best TV for separating shades of black) will be connected to notebook
I would very much appreciate advice for best machine with reference to combining ;
– graphic card
– CPU
– resolution (3640 x 2160) —- LED ?
– and any other important points necessary for good quality downloading astronomy programs from internet

Above article is more than correct.
Beware of laptops offering a 4k resolution screen and a graphics card uncapable of handling 4K graphics such as DELL reviews unveil. I think a NVIDIA GTX 900 series graphic card is needed, which is for the moment the strongest card available for laptops.
The reason of my interest in a 4K laptop is that I must edit 4K footage from a 4K camera in ADOBE Première Pro CC. Untill now my laptop cannot, even with i7 quad cpu, 16 GB RAM and NVIDIA GTX 560M 3GB combined with an external 4K graphics card emulator attached to a 4K monitor. I had to cancell my PPro suscription as a result of playback issues.
So there is definitely a serious reason to by a 4K laptop. You simply cannot without in order to avoid playback issues in 4K video editing software from ADOBE, SONY FcPro etc…
I suggest try first before to by.
Dirk

Hello Foo, the page you left this comment on contains several reviews, you can view them by clicking the blue link button which says “Read Review”. We also have other laptop reviews if I recall correctly and I will shortly post the links to those here, if there are others. We area also working on adding links to all product reviews in a column along the right of the main site page and all other pages. Thank you.

Hello there Garry. Quite frankly, I’d argue that you’re better of going with a 4K PC instead of a laptop and you want to edit your videos in their native 4K resolution. Apple’s 5K iMac costs only moderately more than most 4K laptops but is better suited for handling the resolution overall. Or you could create your own PC configuration with a 4K monitor (TN display if you’d like a lower price but less than stellar color accuracy, or IPS for a bit more cost) and a decently powerful GPU. Not necessarily a tru 4K gaming GPU like the Nvidia GTX 980 Ti but maybe a Radeon 390x, which should work well enough for video editing in 4K. 4K laptops can be great performers but for editing in the resolution, they don’t quite match PC or 4K apple technology. Though if you prefer a laptop, check out our reviews and see what seems to offer the nest specs. In this case, color accuracy and decent processing power and RAM will be key.

Why did you not mention the #1 use case for 4k on a small screen? Namely, a “HiDPI” (ala Apple’s Retina) use case?

Both at work (from a macbook pro) and at home (standard custom box) I run two 4k monitors @60Hz, and run them both with 2.0x DPI scaling so that the text is super crisp. 4k without scaling on a 15″ is pretty useless, as it’s just too small to see anything. Go look at a macbook with retina display next to a standard 1080p and you’ll see hands down that 4k is the only way to go in the future for laptops.

Hello Howard, we are actually working on that right now and the whole list will be dramatically revamped to cover the new models that have been emerging and which we’ve also been reviewing. A number of new laptops and monitors are definitely going to be mentioned.

Comment on 4K laptops: this review makes the point that some windows and application screens aren’t rendered correctly with a 4K laptop. I have an ASUS K501U with 4K and it is unusable for some applications because of this scaling problem. Even some major application vendors (Adobe, Texas Instruments) warn about not using their software on a 4K display and don’t have any solution. I use this laptop for business consulting and wish I had a full HD display instead. I notice ASUS doesn’t seem to offer 4K displays much anymore on their laptops – wonder why?

Hello Mark, we’re actually pending on a review of the Lenovo Yoga and this is coming soon. This laptop had caught our eye and it seems to offer some superb specs. It’s in the package of reviews which will be coming in during the following couple weeks.

all from costco as i returned a dell from last year that had crap screen issues..it was an inspirion 15 5559..so i am leary of dell…but lenevo is not great quality either from what i hear…….argggggggggggggggg

Hey there Aleh, frankly, given the smaller screen sizes of laptops, I’d probably suggest one of the first two models. In my experience, both Asus and lenovo mostly deliver great performance and in some ways outdo Dell in this department. Furthermore, while both of those first two laptops deliver only 1080p visuals, the small screen size will make this much less noticeable than it would be in any 4K TV. Also, if you want to use these laptops for gaming the combination of Core i7 CPU and NVIDIA GPU (for the Asus model) should allow for some pretty mean performance. On the other hand, if you’re interested in watching 4K Netflix content in UHD resolution on a laptop, the last model might be a great choice because it combines Windows 10, Kaby Lake i7 CPU specs and 4K display. In other words, it’s more bout what your bigger visually-intensive use for these machines will be.

I have placed an order with Dell for a 15″ Alienware 15 R3 with a UHD display, i7 7700 HQ processor and GTX 1070 GPU and I hope to receive the laptop within the next couple of days.

While awaiting the arrival of my order, I have stumbled on a number of reviews advising against having 4k UHD displays on laptops and I am wondering if I’ll regret getting the UHD display instead of the FHD. I am now considering returning it once it arrives.

These reviews have specifically mentioned scaling, battery, gaming and general application performance issues associated with the UHD display on laptops.

Has anyone especially digital content creators had any bad experiences such as scaling of apps or battery performance with the UHD display on the Alienware 15 R3 or gaming laptops in general?

Aside from work, I play FIFA 18 and also occasionally do FPS gaming. Would AutoCAD, Revit, 3Ds Max, SketchUp, Lumion and MS Office applications run without any issues on a UHD display?

Would old games like “Resident Evil 6” and “I am Alive” run smoothly on the UHD display? What about new games like Resident Evil 7 and other new triple A titles? Would gaming experience suffer on the UHD display.

Hi there James, with a GTX 1070 GPU you should have nor problem at all using a UHD laptop for anything work related that involves video editing, graphics work and so forth. For gaming, things get a little trickier but I don’t think it will be a problem for older games like those you mention. The GTX 1070 is one powerful GPU. It’s not quite good enough for serious gaming with 4K graphics activated but it can certainly handle more conventional, slower 4K UHD resolution uses on a laptop like that, and also handle gaming that isn’t done with 4K detail levels and textures.

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